heated tanks

rvn4fun

Well-known member
Hi, I have a few questions that may be stupid, but since we have some new features on our new Big Country 2011 3450TS, that we are not to familiar with we are asking. 1 Since we camp in colder climates on our old camper we ran the furnance more on cold days( instead of electric heaters) to keep our holding tanks from freezing up. Today we found a switch that we were unaware of up by the waterpump that says heater. I assume this means tank heater? We never had this before, do you turn this switch on when it is really cold out, or can you just run your furnance, is it ducted into the water holding tank compartment. 2 I ask the service man about greaseing the auto hubs, how many miles, once a year ect, he said he would check on it, never did. We don't want to break down on the road somewhere. In the past we took our old rv down to the our local mechanic who packed the bearings about every two years. Do we change from this practice? 3 Our walk thru tech, told us on the electric awning, all you have to do is push the button. In or out. Yesterday I found on the arms, there are plastic tightners like on our non automatic awning. Do we use these? If so when. 4 We now have a pocelain toilet, what is the best thing to use to clean it? Can we use any auto cleaner like you stick to the side of the bowl ect? We just had a plastic toilet before, someone told us that with a porcelain toilet you could use a more aggresive cleaner then you could on plastic if you have to. What do you use? 5 Are the tires on our rv no good? Everything that I read on this forum says that the tires Heartland uses are junk. We had a blowout on our last rv just this year that destroyed our fender lights ect. I just installed new tires on our last rv just before we came down here to Texas, maybe I should have kept them. In this day and age I thought tires would be the last of my worries after spending a lot of money for a brand new tire. 6 Somewhat upset over a few thinks on our new camper, after reading a post on changing taillights over to LED lights, I assumed ours had LED as most all new campers have them, much to my dismay ours doesn't, but the top back clearance lights are LED! This makes it look funny at night with the different color and brightness. What gives did they make our camper with parts left over? 7 Slam doors on the storage compartment, ours doesn't have them, all the other Big Countries on the lot had them, when I questioned our salesman about it he stated that thats the way Heartland does it, you never know until you see it what it has on it. I told him that I wanted slam doors if I was indeed buying a 2011, and the others had it. None of the others were my same model though. He said sorry, if I wanted the doors I had to take one of the other models. He didn't know if he ordered another 3450Ts if it would have slam doors or not. So we took it but we are still not happy. I think a 2011 should have everything that the others have, unless it is a option. Ours was built 11/02/09 and we bought it 12/10/09. So it should have had the new improvements. Your thoughts? Overall we love it so far but just had a few questions. Thanks
 

lwmcguir

Well-known member
1. The heater switch is for the electric on the hot water heater. Tank heaters are on a breaker and are by option only.
2. You should grease them properly at around 10K (or pull them to be sure and pack them)
3. Our awning doesn't have any tighteners so cant answer that one
4. Any cleaner that don't have harsh abrasive in it
5. What tires do you have? If they are G614 then you are good
6. LED's can be added to the rest if you like them better
7. Slam doors were an option for quite a while on all models in 2009
8. Enjoy the rig and the family time in it
 

2010augusta

Well-known member
For question #3 the plastic knobs allow you to dip the electric awning to one side or the other, to allow water to run off better. You can damage the awning if you retract the awning before you release the knobs.
 

rvn4fun

Well-known member
Reply

The tires are S637, and we fiqured out that the heater switch in question was for gas operation of the water heater, any way that is what we think, the electric has a lighted toggle switch. Thanks for the answers.
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
rvn4fun. 2. If you have the Never Lube bearings, they do not require any maintenance. If you have EZ lube hubs, they should be maintained annually. 4. Clean the porcelain bowl as you would the one at home. We use bowl cleaner from the dollar store and clean the bowl just before dumping the black tank. Not sure if the chemicals :eek: may damage the ABS tank??? 5. The tires that come with your trailer are DOT approved as are any tires supplied for all other brands. There have been issues with China made tires and US made tires as well. Your biggest concern should be proper air pressure and alignment. Keep a close watch for any bubbles in the sidewall or tread. All trailer tires US and China made are designed for 65 mph. 6. I may be wrong but most RV's come with standard tail lights. Those of us that changed to LED did it because they are more visible. 7. Not sure about the slam doors. I have plain old doors and love em. No problems with them either.;)
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
The tires are S637, and we fiqured out that the heater switch in question was for gas operation of the water heater, any way that is what we think, the electric has a lighted toggle switch. Thanks for the answers.

You are correct on the heater switches. The red one that looks like a light switch is for the water heater on electric element only. The small black one, usually on the bottom of the tank gauge display that says "heater" is to run it on propane. You can run it on both if you want a faster heat up of the water, but we've not needed to do that.
 
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